Choosing an Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO, or getting the robots to recommend you) company means picking between tools, agencies, and consultants, a choice complicated by a landscape of rebranded SEO firms. To get your brand mentioned by AI, you must hire for public relations, not just technical SEO, because data shows that 84% of AI citations are driven by third-party earned media, not your own website.
This single fact changes everything. If the vast majority of what AI engines use to form their recommendations comes from what other people write about you, then on-page adjustments are a secondary concern. The primary job is to influence those third-party sources.
Your brand is likely invisible, and hiring the wrong type of partner will keep it that way. This is not just a missed opportunity; it is a direct threat to your pipeline as more buyers turn to AI for initial recommendations.
The financial implications of this invisibility are stark. When Google places an AI Overview at the top of a results page, the number one organic result loses an estimated 58% of its clicks, according to a report from Instant Press. This traffic is not just disappearing; it is being intercepted by the AI. Yet, the traffic that does come from AI answers is often more valuable, with one report finding AI-referred visitors convert at a higher rate than those from Google organic search.
This creates a double bind: ignore AEO and you risk losing what was once a reliable source of traffic; master it and you gain a smaller but more valuable stream of customers.
The AEO Landscape in Numbers
84%
of AI citations from earned media
Your own website accounts for less than 10% of what AI models cite.
90%
of brands have zero AI mentions
Analysis shows most are invisible to AI-driven buyers.
1in 4
US companies are never named by AI
A study of over 2,000 firms found a vast gap in AI visibility.
Why AEO Is More Like Public Relations Than SEO
Answer Engine Optimisation, or AEO, is the practice of getting your brand, products, and services recommended by generative AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. It is a fundamentally different discipline from traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO focuses on persuading a search algorithm to rank your own website higher than your competitors' websites. It is a battle for control over a list of blue links.
AEO, by contrast, is about influencing a synthesiser. The AI does not just rank sources; it reads them, forms an opinion, and delivers a summarised verdict. As Ahrefs data shows, AI visibility correlates most with third-party mentions and video, not the on-page work that defined SEO for two decades. This means the game has shifted from optimising your own assets to shaping the conversation about you across the entire web. The skills required are less technical and more reputational, closer to public relations than to programming.
Many vendors have simply put the letters 'AEO' on their old SEO services, which is a critical error. An agency that spends its time tweaking your llms.txt file (a text file for telling AI crawlers what to ignore) or optimising your schema markup is working on the margins. According to one report, a brand's own website accounts for only 5-10% of AI sources.
A strategy that focuses only on this slice risks failure by leaving the majority of potential AI citations, which come from third-party sources, to chance. For more on the distinction, see our guide to SEO vs AEO vs GEO.
Which Type of AEO Company Actually Gets Results?
The market for AEO companies can be broken down into four distinct categories. Understanding which role each plays is the key to assembling an effective strategy and avoiding expensive, ineffective retainers. The table below outlines these vendor types, but the crucial insight is that only one of them directly addresses the primary driver of AI visibility. Most brands will need a combination of Type 1 for measurement and Type 4 for execution.
| Vendor Type | Primary Focus | Key Deliverable | Effectiveness for AI Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Tooling Providers | Data and Measurement | A software platform or API for tracking AI mentions. | Essential, but insufficient. Measures visibility but does not create it. |
| 2. Technical SEO (Rebranded) | On-site Optimisation | llms.txt, schema markup, site speed, content tagging. | Low. Addresses the 5-10% of citations from a brand's own website, ignoring the majority. |
| 3. Content Agencies (Rebranded) | Content Production | Blog posts and articles, often for the brand's own site. | Medium, if the content is placed on third-party sites. Low otherwise. |
| 4. PR-Led AEO Firms | Earned Media | Mentions in high-authority articles, forums, and reviews. | High. Directly targets the 84% of citations that drive AI recommendations. |
Tooling providers like Honeyb (our platform), Ahrefs, and Semrush are the foundation of any serious AEO effort. They provide the data to track whether your strategy is working, identifying which engines mention you, for which queries, and from which sources. They are your measurement system, but they are not the strategy itself.
Rebranded technical SEO agencies are the most common and least effective type of AEO company. They apply old SEO tactics to a new problem, focusing on technical signals that have minimal impact on how AI models form opinions. While a technically sound website is important, it is table stakes, not a growth strategy for AI visibility.
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Rebranded content agencies are a step better. They understand that content is what AI models consume. However, if their primary deliverable is content for your own blog, they are still missing the larger picture. The goal is not just to create good content, but to get that content (or mentions of your brand within it) onto the third-party platforms AI engines already trust. This is where the crucial discipline of how to get cited by AI comes in.
PR-led AEO firms are the only vendors equipped to solve the core problem. They understand that AEO is an earned media game. Their expertise lies in digital public relations: building relationships with journalists, placing stories on authoritative publications, and encouraging discussion on community platforms like Reddit. According to Semrush data, Reddit is the single most-cited source for AI answers. This makes it a critical platform for any brand wanting to influence AI recommendations, and a key focus for PR-led firms.
How to Vet and Price an AEO Partner
Given that an effective AEO strategy is rooted in public relations, your vetting process should reflect that. Instead of asking about keyword rankings and technical audits, you should be asking about media relationships and citation-worthy campaigns. The median retainer for a combined GEO and AEO engagement is now $6,850 per month, a 45% premium over a traditional SEO retainer. For that price, you must demand a strategy that addresses the whole problem, not just the technical sliver.
When interviewing potential AEO companies, ask these questions:
* What percentage of your strategy is focused on earned media versus on-site optimisation?
* Can you show us examples of third-party press coverage you have landed for clients that then appeared as AI citations?
* How do you measure success beyond our website's traffic and rankings?
* Which platforms, outside of our own, will you target to generate mentions?
* What is your process for discovering the sources an AI engine trusts for our specific industry?
The answers will reveal whether a firm is selling a repackaged SEO service or a genuine media strategy. A strong partner will talk about building relationships with journalists, creating data-backed stories, and promoting discussion on relevant forums. A weak partner will talk about schema markup and internal linking.
Ultimately, choosing an AEO company is not about finding the best SEO expert. It is about finding a partner who understands that AI recommendations are a reflection of a brand's public reputation. The right firm is a digital PR and media specialist that uses modern AEO tools to prove its work is influencing what these new gatekeepers say about you.
The first step is to establish a baseline. You cannot improve what you do not measure. A comprehensive audit of your current AI visibility will show you where you stand and provide the data needed to build a strategy that works. You can start with a free check of your brand's presence across the major AI engines.
Ready to see where your brand stands? Run a free audit with the Honeyb AI Visibility Checker.
